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Oct 4, 2018

Thursday, October 4th 2018 Wendy L. Brandes and Martha Jones

Theme: Car Wars - auto-fighting for parking spots.

20A. Spotify category for courageous Motown lovers?: INTREPID SOUL. Dodge Intrepid (Thanks for the correction, Big Easy) and a Kia Soul. I like the fresh "Spotify" reference in the clue - a music streaming service where you can pick your flavor of playlist.

28A. One hiking in a Maine national park?: ACADIA EXPLORER. GMC Acadia and a Ford Explorer. I'm not sure I was familiar with "Acadia", neither the park nor the vee-hick-el, but crosses filled it in for me just fine. Beautiful spot here in the park:

47A. Weekend in the Hamptons, say?: SUBURBAN ESCAPE. Chevy Suburban, Ford Escape. Dearborn gets 50% of the auto sales in this puzzle, I'm sure they'd be delighted if that was the case in the real world.

53A. Like a delivery truck blocking your car, maybe ... and a hint to 20-, 28- and 47-Across: DOUBLE-PARKED
Oh no - things were going so well until the reveal. There are two cars, fore-and-aft in each theme entry and .. they're tandem parked, not double-parked. Double-parked in the puzzle would be stacked, above and below. Still possible in a crossword construct - tricky, but possible. Just changing the reveal entry to TANDEM PARKED and everyone (well, pedants like me!) would be even happier.

Wendy and Martha are, I believe, a mother-daughter partnership and are certainly debutants in the LAT. They were published this last August in the WSJ which I'm pretty sure was their first "major". Congratulations to them on their LAT opening salvo - we look forward to many more. Stop by and introduce yourselves if you have time!

Across:

1. Abruptly end a relationship with by ignoring texts, calls and such: GHOST. A fresh new term from the "yoot". But "... with by ..."? I thought that was a typo at first. If the relationship involved a Norwegian named "Frøm", you could have said "... end a relationship with Frøm by avoiding ..", thus making more sense and nailing the ablative with a trifecta. Maybe a comma for readability would help?

6. European airline: SAS. Scandinavian Air Services. Not the only airline to do this, but they had a chain of hotels in Europe also; they figured if they needed hotels to overnight their aircrews, they might as well own the hotels.

32. Org. for the Williams sisters: W.T.A. Women's Tennis Association. Founded by the redoubtable Billie-Jean King in a bid for more equitable prize money as offered to the men. That certainly worked out.

33. Blood fluids: SERA

34. Damascus native: SYRIAN

35. Says 22-Down, perhaps: ERRS

37. Octane Booster brand: STP. Is every car and driver in NASCAR sponsored by STP? Or just my brief forays into that world make it appear so?

39. Loan figs.: A.P.R'S Annualized Percentage Rates. I've never fathomed out the difference between interest paid annually at a certain rate, and an APR, but that's just me finding more interesting things to do.

40. "Field of Dreams" actor: LIOTTA. Actor Ray.

43. Cy Young stats: ERA'S

46. Final: Abbr.: ULT

50. Pinafore letters: H.M.S. Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, one of their most popular, certainly on the "Greatest Hits" list. I'd pay good money to see a performance of "The Pirates of Penzance" if any impresario is reading. If only for the Major General with an sly reference to "Pinafore".

51. Hebrew for "day": YOM

52. Small fruit pie: TART

58. Gulf States inlet: BAYOU. Linda Ronstadt is going back to a blue one.

61. Bagel go-with: LOX

62. Flower child's greeting: PEACE

63. Track meet part: EVENT

64. Cooperstown winter hrs.: E.S.T.

65. Legally bar: ESTOP. Seen the word, understand it, still hate it.

66. Sees regularly: DATES

67. Rehab issue: DT'S

68. Angioplasty implant: STENT

Down:

1. Mongolian desert: GOBI

2. Traffic sound: HORN. Hoot, honk, howl (of an engine?) would also fit, so wait for the crosses.

3. Jump over: OMIT

4. Ancient Peloponnesian state: SPARTA

5. Winds (one's way) through: THREADS

6. Some advanced college courses: SEMINARS

7. Surrounded by: AMID

8. Prince Harry's dukedom: SUSSEX. Sussex had to stagger along, dukeless, between the death of Prince Augustus Frederick in 1843 and Prince Harry just this year picking up where Fred left off. Now Sussex is proudly re-Duked, with a Duchess thrown in for good measure. I'm sure the honest burghers of Brighton are dancing on the streets, on the pier, and jauntily on the nude beach.

9. Without much detail: VAGUELY

10. MPs' concern: AWOL

11. Bad review: PAN

12. Steam: IRE

13. German article: DER. The D on it's own isn't enough to choose which gender article you need.

21. __-dieu: PRIE. I call it a kneeler. I like that you can get padded versions to take the pain out of prayer.

22. Unwelcome word from a barber: OOPS

25. Catch in a lie, say: TRIP UP

26. NutraSweet developer: SEARLE

27. Accounting giant __ & Young: ERNST

28. Courtyard that may feature glass elevators: ATRIUM. A bank I worked at in London was owned by a Scottish family, the Flemings (Ian Fleming was part of the family). The building had a lovely glass-enclosed atrium where a bagpiper would play each morning to serenade you into work. The building also had it's own pub, the "Scottish Pound", with a street entrance for the general hoi-polloi, and a back entrance directly from the offices into the bar for the staff. Ah, happy days ... the pub is no more - the bank was sold to Chase in the early 2000's.

29. Pod-bearing trees: CAROBS. Carob is turned into a quite pleasant chocolate substitute to be ...

30. Consumed: EATEN

31. 60 minuti: ORA

32. __ corgi: WELSH

36. R-V link: STU. You either like this one, or dislike it intensely. An alphabet progression with the subtle misdirection in the R-V clue.

38. Excuses: PRETEXTS. Very nice.

41. Casting calls: TRYOUTS

42. "__ Ben Adhem": ABOU

"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,

And with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."

"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blest,

And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

Leigh Hunt

"Write me as one that loves is fellow men" is the epitaph on Hunt's gravestone in Kensal Green cemetery in London. It's not the most peaceful place in the world, the main railway line from London to the midlands and Manchester is just over the fence.

55. "This Is Us" role for Chrissy Metz: KATE. No clue, thank you crosses.

56. Micro or macro subj.: ECON. I took an Economics class at school and loved it. Back then, an economics degree was a BA, not a BSc. It wasn't viewed as "proper" science, more, as Disraeli put it, "Lies, damn lies and statistics".

57. Cabinet div.: DEPT. Dept. of Econ?

58. __ Bath & Beyond: BED. They send me "20% Off" coupons every week. They officially have an expiry date, but in actual fact they never expire.

Saw the vehicle mashup when first encountered at 20a. Haven't we seen that before? Maybe not. Got the R-V connection immediately, but "Gulf States" initially had me thinking Oman, Yemen, etc. This one turned into a Wite-Out-free romp. Thanx, Wendy, Martha and Steve.

The car theme was not noticed by me this am. The theme fills were easy to guess but I didn't notice the cars. ACADIA Nat. Park is in Maine but ACADIANA is SW Louisiana and the ACADIANS call themselves CAJUNS.

1A. GHOST- I'd never heard the term. I was thinking E-DUMP or something like that.I know of the "Field of Dreams" movie but LIOTTA was an unknown. "This Is Us" role for Chrissy Metz: KATE. No clue, thank you crosses. Ditto for Big Easy.

Most times, when aviation companies advertise looking for pilots, they have the usual formal style - everything is crisp and professional. “Applicants must have XXX Hours Pilot in Command in turbine aircraft...” for example. Well, once I came across a Louisiana crop-dusting company that spelled out the usual stuff in its advertising, but added other phrases such as “Must know how to drink, swear, smoke cigarettes, and chase Cajun women...” Apparently these skills are important in the crop dusting world!

Fun Thursday -I got the theme with the ACADIA EXPLORER answer which helped the rest fill more quickly.Costner was one letter too long - so then remembered LIOTTA played his dad in the film who came out of the corn to play ball with his son.

I'm with D-O - with misdirect on the Gulf States - but perps straightened that out1

Good Morning, Steve and Friends. Getting all the car models came before being DOUBLE PARKED.

ACADIA National Park is near Bar Harbor on Mt. Desert Island in Maine, so I think of the rocky coast line instead of the quiet lake in the park. One of the highlights of the Park is Thunder Hole. We used to go there often when I was a kid. D-O: to expand on your Acadia-Cajun connection, both originate from Nova Scotia. When the French were kicked out after the British took over, a few of the Acadians moved to Maine, but many went further south to Louisiana, which was then a French territory.

The only actor I remembered from Field of Dreams was Kevin Costner. The perps slowly revealed Ray LIOTTA.I

YOM Kippur literally means Day of Atonement.

I initially tried Honk in lieu of HORN.

I took several SEMINARS while in grad school.

I had to wait for the perps to give me the proper German article.

I had heard the word GHOST used in the manner described in the clue from a teenager.

Mostly fairly easy, but I sputtered in the NE for awhile. Had brig crossing song, but nothing gelled. Was MP military police or a Member of Parliament? But VAPID looked promising and pointed to BRIG and VAGUELY, so INTREPID SOUL looked very good. DER - The nominative masculine case of 'the'. Die, das, des, dem, den; - not so much.GHOST - New, but heard it discussed on a talk show last week.SUSSEX - Bailiwick of the South Saxons.Gulf States? - Devilish clue. Which ones; the littoral ones around the Persian Gulf or the ones where Hahtoolah, Big Easy and -T live? But after retrogressing (I know; bad grammar) my overthinking, BAYOU soon became obvious.

This was a fairly trouble-free Thursday with only two w/os: Honk/Horn and Kapoks/Carobs. My knowledge of trees is the same as my knowledge of cars: little to none, ergo, I needed the reveal to understand the theme. Oddly enough, I didn't know Acadia was a car model but I do know Acadia Park and its Cadillac Mountain. Kate from "This Is Us" was a gimme as I'm a big fan of the show. Bayou was a nice CSO to our Louisiana contingent.

Thanks, Wendy and Martha, for a satisfying solve and thanks, Steve, for the fact-filled analysis. You were in fine fettle, as usual.

Very easy for a Thursday. I saw the two vehicles in a row right off. I didn't object to this use of double parking. In one sense, the words are side by side, instead of one behind the other.How up to date with GHOST and SPOTIFY! I am aware of both terms. Ghosting appears in advice columns. My acquaintances don't use the term..KATE was the only completely unknown. YOM Kippur suggested YOM.My GPS voice says "suh SEX" for Sussex, with the emphasis on sex. She pronounces the TH in Thomas like the TH in thing.Speaking of cars, we enjoyed a spectacular sunrise and sunset on Cadillac Mtn. in Acadia National Park. Thunder Hole was also great. Best of all were the Maine lobsters.Thank you, Steve, for Abou Ben Adam. I have loved that poem since I was a kid.I love LOX or any type of smoked salmon. We also enjoy fresh salmon. Did you know that not all smoked salmon is called lox? "Smoked salmon is a blanket term for any salmon: wild, farmed, fillet, steak, cured with hot or cold smoke. Lox refers to salmon cured in a salt-sugar rub or brine (like gravlax). Nova is cured and then cold-smoked (unlike lox or gravlax)."

Fun puzzle, Wendy and Martha--many thanks. As usual, I have to cheat a bit on a Thursday puzzle, but not too much on this one. I don't know cars (well, except for my 2003 Subaru) so didn't get the theme, but was happy Steve explained it to us. Steve, thank you also for posting the Leigh Hunt poem. Is the first line of the poem "ABOU Ben Adhem, may his tribe increase"? I don't know why that phrase kept going through my head. Anyway, thank you again, Wendy, Martha, and Steve, for making this a neat Thursday morning.

I think I’ve been retired and away from teenagers too long… GHOST as clued makes sense, but I have never heard it used that way.

It was the NE that slowed me up the most; for some reason I found it VAGUELY confusing. :P

INTREPID SOUL didn’t wake me up to the theme today, but ACADIA EXPLORER did. We went to Acadia a year ago and loved it (and yes, I did buy a Thunder Hole t-shirt, but it was a quiet day oceanically speaking, and what we heard was more of a mutter).

TSE was a gimme. His Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock was a favorite of mine in college.

Congrats to Wendy and Martha on their LAT debut. And Steve, as Irish Miss said, you’ve never been fettler.

Thank you, Desper-otto. Strange how poems from childhood stay in our minds. I could probably still recite most of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" ("Listen my children, and you shall hear/ Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere").

YR, you would mention Maine lobsters. I've got a hankering. That was a good Star Trek HMS segment. Not too, too hard. A typical Thursday. I didn't catch on that both "Doubles" were parkable items. In South Boston, they double parked since the Irish knew the cops. In the North End the mobsters triple parked. They owned the cops.

PK, end of the Tiger discussion. I never liked Kobe Bryant btw, so I can identify.

Re. Statistics. The so-called Analytics have just about ruined baseball. Failed miserably last night for Oakland

Misty, how about that "Spreading chestnut tree where the village smithy stood" poem

I got a real kick out of this pzl from the Brandes/Jones team. Ta- DA!Just about everything I didn't know was solved by a perp or two. And the long fills needed only a few letters to suggest the rest. These two factors turned this into a field of discovery, which I suppose is a main reason for most of us to spend time as cruciverbalists.

Ah, yes! We learned ABOU Ben Adhem in Junior High - the perfect age for enjoying Leigh Hunt's rollicking couplets.

~ OMK____________DR: A 3-way of diags, running NW to SE. The central diagonal gives us a lot of Rs - so many that they verge on being its main anagrammatic word, a bunch of ...IRRITATORS !with (faith-and-be)GORRA! left over.

Hi Y'all! Having kept books for two car dealerships, I notice cars more than many women so I really enjoyed this one, thanks, Wendy & Martha.

Steve,your jaunty English gents cavorting on nude beaches cracked me up. However, picturing those nudies, I still saw collars (only), ties & bowler hats on them. I'm wondering, too, whether real estate comes with the title of Duke of SUSSEX after being un-duked all those years? By jove, the young Duke needs an income now he has a wife.

Duh! du jour: I knew YOM Kippur meant Day of Atonement but never thought about YOM meaning day. Duh! ESP

DNK: Spotify. GHOST, I did know because someone I care about has GHOSTed me for stating an obvious fact they weren't wanting to acknowledge. They preferred the old ostrich head in the sand technic. Action is needed.

Pod dropper in my yard is "mimosa" before CAROBS, a tree I've never seen.

For once I got R-V link right away. Yay, me!

SwampCat and others: thanks for explaining BAYOU. I thought it was more a back water than an inlet.

My favorite poem: "The moon was a GHOSTly galleon...The Highwayman went riding, riding up to the old inn door..." also knew the first lines of Abu Ben Adem.

WC: Okay, truce! Don't get me started on K.B. either. LOL! Silly of me to get so down on guys who have absolutely no place in my reality.

I got interested in the provenance of "stay the course", as mentioned today. One explanation I found was that, as early as 1885, it was said to refer to race horses staying til the end of a race. Another talks about its use in politics, dating from 1980 with Reagan, and links it to sailing terminology.

What I found the most fascinating, though, was its use as far back as the 16th century with an opposite type of meaning, where "stay" was a synonym of "stop", so that the phrase meant to interrupt the progress of something.

Idioms and the history of how they come about is so interesting, isn't it, though explanations are seldom certain.

Late to the party - Friday Night Lights was Thursday this week. A home game so I watched Youngest dance.

Thanks Wendy & Martha for a boarder-line evil Thursday puzzle. I confess, I had to look-up ACADIA to finish and the whole central-west was a wag-fest. Also, I thought all the cars were parks (hey, SUBURBAN sound's like a park name!) so Double Park (would) make sense.

Thanks Steve for the vat-o-V8 whack! Cars! Love'd the expo and stories from across the Pond.

WOs: I mangled the spelling of BRIre for a long (too long) time, Marriott Courtyard was going to fit (one R, one T, there!) until HMS forced a change to ATRIUM.ESPs: I've forgotten all of them by now. SEARLE was certainly one; PRIY(?) and TARN were more w/ lucky WAGsFav: c/a for GHOST. Nice and fresh (and I nailed it!)VAPID xing VAGUELY was cute too.

WEES - I had the same Aha! at YOM (when you kipper, I guess).

{B+, A-}

SandyAnon - Don't sweat it re: J-Site; it was about an interesting idiom and on course w/ the Corner too.

Picard - I've seen the No Bozos logo oft (on the Interwebs, not IRL) which is why I was so interested in the back-story.

Dudley - Cajuns is fun people. I work with a number of them and they are all officey during the day and cammo'd-up at 5p.

D-O: Hand-up, always thought it was Twain. Thanks for the link and thanks OKL for the graph of statistics on it :-)

Um, OK, today is 'First poems put to memory'?There once was a man from Nantucket... :-)

Thanks for the Thursday fun, Wendy and Martha, and Steve.I FIRed with only one inkblot (Sipid to VAPID) but the theme was over my head.

Enjoyed the Sussex info, Steve. I have sunbathed on Brighton beach years ago (and nobody was nude including me LOL). The beach is incredibly stony, nor sandy, and people changed under their towels with amazing skill. There is a hilarious Mr Bean skit but I can't take time to find it for you.

SAS means shoes to me. I have worn them for years and they are comfortable and long lasting. Well-made in San Antonio.

The Acadian story of expulsion from Maritimes is very sad.

Kids don't memorize poetry any more. Will they miss it in their golden years . . Or just look it up on their technology?